Rumors From The North This Week

A North Korean singer perform in Pyongyang on Saturday. The song was titled “Let Us Uphold Our Supreme Commander Forever.”

It’s that time of the week when we catch up on the rumors and gossip happening in North Korea away from the official drumbeat of all-is-swell reports of the official news agency.

Kim Jong Nam speaks, a Japanese journalist says.

A Japanese reporter, Yoji Gomi of Tokyo Shimbun, is publishing a book next week said to be based on extensive interviews with Kim Jong Nam, the older brother of new dictator Kim Jong Eun.

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And the big revelation: Kim Jong Nam said in an email on Dec. 28, the day of the big funeral procession around Pyongyang for Kim Jong Il, that he opposed the hereditary transition of power to his little brother.

The news comes on the heels of other reports that said Kim Jong Nam went to Pyongyang during the mourning period for an unpublicized visit to pay respects to his father.

The official North Korean media has said nothing about Kim Jong Nam nor about the second of Kim Jong Il’s son, Kim Jong Chol, since the father’s death. It’s Kim Jong Eun all day and all night.

The book is being published by Bungei Shunju Co. No word on whether English and Korean editions will be available.

Are the faces changing for doing business in North Korea?

One of the most interesting reports of the moment comes from Chosun Ilbo, and advanced by the foreign consultant/observers of North Korea at Choson Exchange, of word that the man who Kim Jong Il tapped to seek out foreign investment has left his job.

The man, Ri Chol, led the Joint Venture and Investment Committee, one of the two main vehicles for getting legitimate business dealings done in North Korea. He’s the guy who arranged for Orascom, the Egyptian conglomerate, to come in and build a cellphone network in Pyongyang that is reportedly closing in on a 1 million subscribers.

He’s also the guy who was reportedly a minder for Kim Jong Eun and his brother Kim Jong Chol when they went to boarding school in Switzerland in the 1990s.

Hard to know what to make of his departure. But as an indicator of economic policy and direction, whatever happens next with the JVIC could be significant.

The official corrective begins with the calendars.

North Korea’s printing companies reportedly have a tall order – reprint the nation’s official 2012 calendar as fast as possible.

A report by Daily NK, the website partially staffed by defectors that reports on North Korea, says that North Korean authorities have recalled the official calendar because of Kim Jong Il’s death. They’ve ordered up a new one to be distributed by party operatives around the nation.

The new calendar will be marked with an official day on Dec. 17, the anniversary of his death last month.

And some “problematic messages” as Daily NK says will be removed. The wish, “We hope for Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il’s good health” will be replaced by sentiments such as “Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il is with us forever.”

Daily NK notes that the paper quality of the official calendar has gone down in recent years due to shortages. But it’s clearly important for all media to get on message about the loss of Kim Jong Il.

And North Korea’s high-tech factories don’t quite look the part.

The sharpest-observer-of-the-week award has to go to tech writer Martyn Williams and his North Korea Tech blog for pointing out over the weekend that some pictures issued by North Korea of a “computer factory” appeared to be very well staged, or very poorly staged depending on how tongue-in-cheek you want to be about it.

For starters, the computers that workers appeared to be assembling seemed to be Chinese-made. But the kicker is that the circuit boards lined up next to the laptops are packed with tall, chunky components that could never fit inside of a laptop computer.